The Cornwall Dragons hadn’t scored a goal through their first two games of the season.

However, they finally got on the board during Thursday’s game against the Valley Central Vikings, scoring three goals in quick succession in the first half, on their way to a 4-0 win over the Vikings to win their first game of the season.

“I don’t think we’ve played as poorly as some of the results have shown,” senior captain Griffin Harden said. “From last year moving on to this year, we lost a lot of guys, but I still feel like we’re building, and we played well today. We’ve still got some people coming back from injury.”

Harden is one of them, as he spent the last nine months recovering from an ACL injury.

“One of the main things is the mental aspect,” Harden said. “I took my recovery really seriously. I wanted to get back as soon as possible. I know it’s a really serious injury, but I think I got my mind right, and my body right, and now I’m ready to play my senior year as best as possible.”

The Dragons opened the season on Sept. 7 with a 2-0 non-league to the Beacon Bulldogs, and then on Sept. 10 dropped their home and Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association Division II opener, 1-0, to the Goshen Gladiators.

“The boys are still getting themselves together,” goalkeeper Brett Zimmer said. “Following a 1-0 loss to Goshen, it’s good to get a win and a make a big step forward to our future.”

The Dragons scored their first three goals of the season in quick succession late in the first half.
Carlo Vallejo scored the Dragons’ first goal in the 23rd minute off an assist from Aaron Schulman. Three minutes later, Jayden Wendt scored off an assist from Harden.

Then, two minutes after that, Schulman banked a shot off the left goal post, and into the goal for a 3-0 lead.

“I think it definitely gave us confidence,” Harden said. “We’ve had a rough start to the year, but three goals are momentum building for the rest of the season that I think we really needed.”

Harden snuck a goal of his own through in the closing seconds of the game.

All that time, the Cornwall defense limited the Vikings’ scoring opportunities. Xavier Fonseca had their only recorded shot on goal and Zimmer only needed to make one save.

The Dragons outshot the Vikings, 10-1.

“I think the boys just stayed compacted,” Zimmer said. “We won every ball. We were going hard. The intensity was there and that’s what we needed to keep the scoreboard at zero.”

The Dragons moved onto a busy week with away games against the Washingtonville Wizards on Monday and the Monticello Panthers on Friday. They’ll host the Minisink Valley Warriors on Wednesday.
“I think we responded well and resiliently,” Cornwall coach Jim Sanborn said. “With 12 league games, it’s tough. Every year, we seem to have a very tough schedule, but, I think, as we get healthy, we’ve got a couple of guys that are coming back, I think we’ll be there in the end.”